Twisty Tube Tail Plan
curtsy of Mark Neuhaus

While exploring the internet I came across an interesting kite gallery page containing strange tails that seemed to have lots of twists in them.

http://www.teleport.com/~mneuhaus/kites/kites.htm

Taking a gamble I emailed the owner of the page to find out more, only to discover these tubes were Mark's own design. Thanks for sharing your plan with us, Mark. - Anthony.

Instructions

Cut out 2 sets of pieces 1 through 8, these make the ends of the tube shrinking the twists into a more normal tube openings. Then cut out lots of #9 pieces. I use 180 pieces for a 30 ft tube.

Grain makes no difference here at all. Nor should anyone waste time hot cutting, as no air passes by the edges. I use an exacto knife and run it over a sharpener stone every once in a while.

To one of these sets of 8, cutout and sew 8 of of those pieces that look like a teacup with a hat, to the flat, un-slanted ends. Double hem the teacup hat to reinforce what will become a flowerhead like opening for the tube.

For the other set cut and sew the 8 triangular pieces to form a tapering pointy tail.

Sew all the pieces together, side by side, starting with piece 1 through to 8 (with their tea cup pieces), then all the 9 pieces, and ending with the second set of pieces 8 down to 1 (with the pointy tail triangles). Before too long you'll have this nice slanted, real long mess.

Then you sew slanted sides together, the point of #1 to the first piece 9 in the `chain' of pieces, in one LONG seam all the way from one end to the other, to form a inside out tube. Pins may help with this step.

When finished you can turn the tube inside out and take a look at the basic result. 8 bridle lines are attached to loops you can now sew to the tips of the 8 triangular points of the tubes opening. The lines are then collected together to a swivel to allow the tube to slowly spin.

I also always sew some ribbon in the final tapering point, so I can attach another tube or tails. I've gone back and sewn in a small sleeve at the "V" notches of the flowerhead opening and inserted a thin flexible rod. It isn't needed but holds the mouth open and helps keep it inflated when winds are light.

Mark Neuhaus

Diagram Notes

The diagram of the pieces for the twist tube are presented on the next (last) page, as provided by Mark. The only change is that the diagram has been enlarged to fill the page and Mark's suggested dimensions (in inches) added.

Making thick cardboard, or thin plywood templates is highly recommended, especially for piece #9 which you need lots of.

The dimensions are not critical and can be directly scaled to metric units, or to whatever size you like. All pieces also have a 1/4^th inch (5mm) hem, notched at the corners for sewing.

If you look closely you will find that the slanted edge is calculated to cover 1/8^th of the cord (straight) length of the curve (16 inches) on the main #9 piece. Thus 8 pieces are required to go around the tube once. If you change the number of start pieces this length will also need to be modified to suit.

The height of the curve is not critical and looks like it reduces slightly as you progress from piece 8 down to piece 1. That way the `bulge' of the twist also reduces in size toward the ends. To make the curve I suggest placing three pins in a pinboard (two ends and the middle) and bending a piece of 2mm fiberglass rod (or whatever) around those pins and draw the curve.

What is important is that the curve (specifically the height) of one piece, matches the curve of the next piece. This way the length of the curve is the same for both pieces allowing you to place the pieces exactly on top of each other. You can then sew the curve with the pieces lying flat. Folding the last sewn curve under and out of the way then lets you easily sew the next piece to the `chain', in the same way.

The final main seam of the tube (all those slant edges) is more tricky and I suggest you the first few edges together before you start.

Essentually the tube is a normal cylinder with a bulge which spirals around the cylinder. You can stretch or shrink the lengths of the pieces to tighten or spread out the spiral, or increase the height of the curve slightly to make it even more pronounced.

Anthony Thyssen